Hair replacement, i.e., the use of a hairpiece or wig to cover up an area of baldness on an individual's head is well known and many patents have been issued for hair replacement. Below are examples of such patents.
Buckwalter, U.S. Des. 376,444 describes a design for a supplemental hairpiece.
Jenkins, U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,826 describes a method of making a hair piece adapted to be secured to the live hair on the head comprising, folding a weft having a base portion and commercial hair secured thereto a predetermined number of times with said folded base portions forming a foundation, providing fastener means having a plurality of apertures there through, placing said fastener means against said folded base portions, and securing said adjacent folds of said weft together by passing stitches through the apertures in said fastener means and through the foundation formed by said folded base portion to secure said portions in folded relationship.
Johnson et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,651,820 describes a method for holding a hairpiece firmly in place on a wearer's head by anchoring adjustable brackets to the wear's existing hair. A firm anchor is formed from a bead of melted rubber, which is fused into a thin strip of existing hair, and subsequently hardens therein. An anchor attachment and adjustable male bracket engaging a corresponding female bracket attached to the base of the hairpiece to firmly hold the hairpiece in place. The effective length of the male bracket may be adjusted to compensate for hair growth over a period of time.
Maassen et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,662,766 describes a hairpiece, which is anchored with the surrounding natural hair. The hairpiece has plurality of locking devices attached to its base. The locking devices have a first section, which is attached to the hairpiece, and a second section, which is adapted to being lockingly engaged with the first section. The second is attached to the natural hair by means, which permits adjustment of the attachment between the natural hair and the second section to compensate for growth of the natural hair.
Nelson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,254,784 describes an improved hair unit assembly and method wherein the user's natural hair is employed to attach the hair unit in place. In practice, one or more elongated, apertured tubes are placed adjacent the user's natural hair, and strands thereof are pulled into the tubes; an elongated, frictional locking member or adhesive is then inserted with each tube to secure the tubes in place. An appropriate hair unit can then be secured to the tubes by any one of a number of techniques. Reinforcing tube segments are also used to interconnect and bridge spaced hair-receiving tube sections to this rigidify the overall assembly.
Russell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,173 describes a hairpiece for covering areas of partial hair loss removal or thinning on a user's head is disclosed. The hairpiece includes a band of resilient material in an arcuate shape, which hair is attached. When worn, the foundation of hair is positioned over the area of hair loss or removal to conceal the area, and the user's own hair may be combed or styled in a fashion to incorporate the hair of the hairpiece with that of the user to produce a natural look.
Rennex, U.S. Pat. No. 5,313,963 describes an improved hairpiece base comprising a mesh and mesh binder. The mesh affords structural strength in the lateral plane, and it serves as an anchor for artificial hairs. The mesh minder fills the region between the mesh strands, and its thickness is approximately equal to the diameter of the mesh strands. At the perimeter of the base, the mesh binder edge may be tapered in thickness.
Walker, U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,434 describes a hair enhancement system including a female portion having a first flexible fabric strip having a first plurality of female snap fastener halves secured to and evenly spaced a first spacing distance along a first side surface thereof; a male portion having a second flexible fabric strip having a second plurality of male snap fastener halves that are mateably with the female snap fastener halves of the female portion secured to evenly spaced by the first spacing distance along a second side surface thereof; and a hair enhancement weft including a third plurality of flexible enhancement hair strands secured to and extending from a side edge of one of said female and male portions along the length thereof. The hair enhancement system is utilized by placing a section of hair from the person having the hair enhancements applied between the female or male portions and snapping the female snap fastener strip to the male snap fastener strip in a manner to retain the section of hair from the person there between.
The hair replacement prior art discussed above serves the need of covering baldness with hair. To achieve this purpose, the hair replacement apparatus (commonly known as wig, toupee, rug, etc.) is placed on the surface of the bald area leaving most, if not all, of the apparatus visible to others. However, the hair replacement prior art does not address the need of individuals who do not suffer from hair loss but instead want to extend the apparent length or design to their existing hair (hereinafter known as primary hair).
Hair extension addresses this need and has become popular during the last few years. Extensions have been profiled at trade shows during the last five years with popularity growing over the last three years. Celebrities have been known to use hair extension to change the length and/or style of their primary hair so they can show up in one event in short hair and another event within days in long hair. Hair extension that looks and feels natural (e.g., seamless among the user's primary hair) is highly prized. Conventional hair extension requires attachment (e.g., gluing or the like) of individual strand of supplemental hair to individual strand of primary hair. This process is labor intensive requiring long hours of application by a skilled professional and therefore, substantial costs. The process can cost thousands of dollars. Furthermore, the user is usually required to undergo this long and expensive process periodically as the attachment between the individual strand of supplemental hair to individual strand of primary hair fails. Accordingly, there exists a need to provide hair extension that looks natural without long hours of application by a skilled professional.
Additionally, removal of the conventional hair extension generally requires damage and/or change to the primary hair (e.g., cutting),which may not be desired. Accordingly, there is a need to provide hair extension that can be removed without changing the primary hair. There is also a need to provide hair extension that is reusable (i.e., can be re-applied).